New Delhi: East Bengal started the season on a bright note, winning the one-off Super Cup by beating I-League champions Salgaocar 9-8 via the sudden death penalty shootout after the regulation time ended goalless at the Ambedkar Stadium here on Tuesday.
For East Bengal, it was sweet revenge against the Goan outfit after having lost both the Federation Cup final and the I-League title race to Salgaocar. East Bengal, who lost the last month's Federation Cup final to Salgaocar, picked up the winner-takes-it-all prize money of one million rupees.
East Bengal coach Trevor Morgan said the win would help his team to overcome the disappointment of the 2010-11 season.
"We will certainly start the season on a positive note. East Bengal was certainly the better team throughout the match," said Morgan.
East Bengal could have sealed it off early but wasted several chances as the match moved into the penalty shootout, in the absence of an extra time. The game was again tied at 4-4 after Salgaocar's Jaspal Parmar and East Bengal's Ravinder Singh wasted their spot-kicks.
In the sudden death, Salgaocar's Irungbam Metei shot the upright while East Bengal Saikat Saha Roy shot it past Salgaocar goalkeeper Karanjit Singh to give the Kolkata giants their third Super Cup title.
Had it not been the profligacy of strikers Robin Singh and Penn Orji, East Bengal could have sealed the issue quite early. The red-and-gold brigade's Scottish playmaker Alan Gow churned out one of his most spectacular performances to keep the pressure on Salgaocar but hardly got ay support from Robin and Orji.
Robin, who was playing in front of his home crowd, perhaps failed to soak in the pressure and couldn't cash-in on the brilliant moves created by Gow.
Thanks to Gow, East Bengal were on an attacking mode right from the start and came close to score twice in a span of 10 minutes in the first half. Gow's swerving free-kick was saved by Karanjit in the 14th minute and 10 minutes later the Scotsman made a solo run into the box and gave a precise pass to Orji, whose chip was again well saved by Karanjit.
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